Hydrogen embrittlement generally occurs in metal as a result of pickling, electroplating, or other treatment. In this phenomenon, the metal absorbs slight amounts of hydrogen and becomes brittle and easily fractured. This remarkably occurs in steels having great tensile strength and hardness.
No conventional testers have been found satisfactory for testing the rate of hydrogen embrittlement resulting from the surface treatment such as described above. A tester able to do this, therefore, has been much awaited.